We completed our 4th move within Paris on Sunday. Through some sort of miracle, we were speaking to a lovely woman at church yesterday, mentioned our move, and she offered her husband and their car to pick us up and get us across the city. It probably would have taken Brian three trips on the subway to get all of our things over here as from Cite Universitaire to our new location involves three different subway lines to make the transfer. With France’s severe lack of elevators and the additions of a stroller, toddler, and pregnant wife, well, a few things (like moving across the city) are just a bit harder. I frequently talk to Brian about how if I were not pregnant and with a toddler and 10 years younger that we would be having a very different time in France. We are just in a reproductive stage and that is all good also. And, the car ride was our first time in a car since New Years’ Eve. Colin was excited by the novelty.

So the nice people from church even invited us over to dinner which was a welcome break for company and great food (especially since we had tried to eat most of our food so as not to move it across Paris). They live in an incredible apartment, really I think possibly the most beautiful apartment I have ever seen. The details in the apartment were much more elaborate than the very posh flat I stayed at in Hyde Park, London. We really had a lovely evening. They have a little girl about Colin’s age and most of the time they enjoyed playing with each other.

The apartment building we are in is very up-scale, but we are staying in a small flat in former servant quarters. The side door we enter even says “SERVICE” over it still, and we are 5 flights up a little narrow staircase. We both feel very out of shape when we climb all the stairs. This is a little crazy with Colin, but we can do anything for a few days. We have left the stroller just inside the door downstairs, which I hope is ok. The flat has had an Ikea makeover fairly recently and is nice but small. We got a lot spoiled in our last place with the well-equipped kitchen, multiple rooms, and lack of five flights of servant stairs. Our current “kitchen” has a small fridge, sink, and a low heat hot plate. It has been like trying to boil water with a light bulb but we have successfully made oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, and I heated pre-made soup for dinner. We are in a great location and a have view of the Eiffel Tower from the kitchen. The tower has strobes that flash on the hour after dark and Colin likes that. We still need to find the nearest playground and get an extra key so Brian is not locked out if I keep the keys and I am not locked in if Brian takes them. This little flat will make us kind of excited to be home next week. There are so many things we love about Europe (history, beauty, bread, dairy products, and chocolate to name a few) but America is so easy and cheap. We were talking the other night about why America can’t be more like Europe and I think it is exactly because we make things easy and cheap.

Brian’s concert is on Saturday. We then head to Las Vegas on Sunday. (We got much cheaper flights out of Las Vegas and go onto SLC on Monday.) It was fairly reasonable so we booked a hotel on the Strip. We figure with the jet lag we may be up in the middle of the night, so may as well go see a Bellagio fountain show and get a fancy buffet breakfast. A few hours is all I need of the Strip these days. We used to go down to Vegas in college which brings up the if I were 10 years younger again.

oh annie, this post made me ache for you (minus the view of the eiffel tower). hope your return trip goes well and that you can relax when you get home. glad you got some great hospitality from those members.

Thanks for the consoling words. We are doing ok, but will be ready to leave. We had the extra fun of a young neighbor telling us to not let Colin make noise in the morning. Yeah, I really love it when he is noisy in the morning and we wake him up extra early so he will make noise. The French seem to have a few different ideas about child rearing that they like to share. And I have had my share of uselessness this week. I mostly wrote the post to try and convince myself that it is just a few days and we will be fine. We will, it is already Thursday. Anyhow, we are still in Paris and that is great.

I know you're bemoaning a bit, and I would certainly be moaning, too, but I am still supremely envious that you are in France, surrounded by French speakers. Your pictures are gorgeous. You are a strong, beautiful woman, going half way around the world 6 months pregnant and with a little guy!